The Farnese galleries in Naples are packed with a foundational collection of ancient sculpture, excavated in Renaissance Rome. Pablo Picasso visited the galleries in 1917, then crossed the city to Vesuvius, where he studied the preserved ruins of Pompeii. In fact, he returned to Naples often in his work, in pieces that explore classical monumentality. In Picasso’s 1920 Seated Woman, his wife Olga is draped in the Pompeii fresco The Sacrifice of Iphigenia. In the 1930s, Picasso channeled the Farnese Bull in his etching La Minotauromachie. The exhibition “Picasso and Antiquity” celebrates the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death by pairing his works with classical splendors. At its entrance, the virile Hector stands in the doorway: he was a great influence on the artist’s self-portraits. —Elena Clavarino